Booking Holdings Q1 FY26 earnings call BKNG

The conflict, which began at the end of February, cut room-night and gross-bookings growth by ~2 percentage points in Q1 (room nights would have grown ~8% versus reported 6%), with a slightly lower impact on revenue and a higher impact on adjusted EBITDA. March was the epicenter: room-night growth slowed to 1% against a ~6pt conflict drag, roughly half from reduced bookings and half from elevated cancellations (historically highest in the first month of a conflict). Impact spread beyond the region into transit corridors such as Europe-Asia. Management assumes the direct and indirect impact persists through end of June (~4 months, one-third of the year), followed by a second-half recovery, and quantified the Q2 headwind at ~3 points.

U.S. room-night growth accelerated for a fourth consecutive quarter to low teens, driven primarily by strong domestic demand and well above the far-lower overall U.S. accommodations market — indicating share gains. The Booking.com U.S. direct channel grew double digits, the product of a multiyear investment in product, brand and supply. Strength extended beyond accommodations into flights, cars and packages, evidencing Connected Trip traction. Company-wide B2C direct mix held steady in the mid-60% range (consistent YoY), sustained by direct-booker growth but offset by the ME (which historically skews high-direct) and continued, small SEO-traffic declines.

Asia posted high-single-digit room-night growth, with intra-Asia demand up low double digits (similar to Q4 2025). Management stressed Asia is a collection of distinct markets, addressed via a global Booking.com playbook combined with Agoda's localized expertise — adapting product, payments and go-to-market to each market and building relationships with independent and traditional supply (ryokans in Japan; independents across Indonesia, India, Vietnam). Distribution increasingly runs through social/messaging platforms: KakaoTalk (Korea), LINE (Thailand, Taiwan) and WhatsApp (India).

Connected transactions (trips spanning more than one vertical) grew high teens — about 3x Booking.com's total transaction growth — and reached a low-double-digit percentage of Booking.com's transactions; such multi-vertical bookers return more frequently. Genius delivers point-of-booking benefits (tiered discounts, free breakfast, room upgrades). Over the trailing four quarters, Level 2 and 3 members were over 30% of the active base and a high-50% share of room nights (up YoY), with mobile-app mix of total room nights also in the high-50% range (up from mid-50%). Management flagged an initiative to further strengthen Genius this year, tying it more tightly to the Connected Trip.

AI is being deployed for traveler-facing experiences, partner tools and internal efficiency. Priceline's Penny is evolving into an end-to-end conversational agent with a dynamic travel map, personalization and direct in-agent booking; early small-sample tests show a conversion uplift and better secondary metrics (faster search, shorter path to booking, lower cancellations, higher satisfaction). Booking.com is rolling out natural-language search and globally launched Smart filters in accommodations (now testing in cars). OpenTable is extending its AI concierge into discovery plus voice-enabled reservations and table-turnover tools. Agoda cut customer-service cost per booking by a double-digit percentage via AI automation. Management partners with OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and Amazon and views AI as expanding travel TAM, not a threat.

Q1 saw a record $3.6B of share repurchases (highest quarterly total ever) plus a $343M cash dividend and an additional $355M repurchased to satisfy employee withholding taxes — ~$4B of total capital return. Since 2014 the share count is down over 40% (even after SBC dilution) at an average $93/share. Ending cash and investments were $16.5B, down from $17.8B at Q4-end, as capital return was partly offset by ~$3.1B of free cash flow (aided by ~$1.9B of seasonal working-capital benefit from the deferred merchant bookings balance). Given macro uncertainty^🌐, management has begun targeted cost actions — tighter discretionary spend and recalibrated BAU hiring — while protecting strategic investment.